Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Photo # NH 97686:  USS Ranger at sea in the western Pacific, August 1961

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Ranger (CVA-61, later CV-61), 1957-____

USS Ranger, a 56,300-ton Forrestal class aircraft carrier built at Newport News, Virginia, was commissioned in August 1957. After working up in the Atlantic and Caribbean, she steamed around Cape Horn in mid-summer 1958 to enter the Pacific Ocean, her home for virtually her entire operational career. Early in 1959, Ranger began the first of some twenty deployments across the big ocean to operate with the Seventh Fleet in the western Pacific. Four more "WestPac" cruises followed in the first five years of the 1960s.

During her fifth 7th Fleet deployment, in early 1965, Ranger commenced Vietnam War operations, covering the initial stages of what would grow to a very large commitment of U.S. forces to that conflict. She returned to the war zone six times from late 1965 until the end of the U.S. fighting role in early 1973, contributing a large portion of the air power applied against the enemy in both North and South Vietnam. Her 1967-68 cruise introduced the then-new A-7A "Corsair II" attack aircraft to combat.

Following the end of the Southeast Asian conflict, Ranger continued her visits to the western Pacific, and began to entend those voyages into the Indian Ocean, whose northwestern reaches were increasingly volatile. The Navy was also changing, and in June 1975 Ranger was reclassified from attack aircraft carrier (CVA-61) to general purpose aircraft carrier (CV-61), reflecting the addition of anti-submarine warfare planes and helicopters to her air group.

Ranger's 1980-81 deployment included active operations in the Arabian Sea area during the crisis precipitated earlier when Iran seized U.S. diplomatic personnel and held them hostage. In 1987, her planes ranged deep into the Persian Gulf, protecting Kuwaiti oil tankers that had been transferred to the U.S. flag during the war between Iraq and Iran. From late 1990 until April 1991, Ranger was back in the Persian Gulf to participate in the brief, but very intense "Desert Storm" fighting that successfully drove the invading Iraqi army out of Kuwait. Her last deployment, beginning in mid-1992, saw the carrier's planes in action over Iraq, enforcing sanctions against that nation's brutal regime under operations "Southern Watch" and "Restore Hope".

USS Ranger was decommissioned in July 1993. Though she was the only one of her four-ship class to not receive the extensive SLEP ("Service Life Extension Program") overhaul during the 1980s, she is also the only one of the four to remain on the Naval Vessel Register. Ranger is presently part of the Reserve Fleet, moored at Bremerton, Washington.

This page features selected views of USS Ranger (CVA/CV-61).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 97685

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Underway off Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 19 July 1959.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 112KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97686

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


At sea during her third deployment to the western Pacific, 26 August 1961.
Among the planes parked on her flight deck are eight A3D twin-engine jet bombers.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 101KB; 740 x 610 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97687

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Underway in the Pacific Ocean, 1 May 1975.
Photographed by PH2 Paul Burns.
Note round helicopter spots painted on her flight deck.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 110KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97688

USS Ranger (CV-61)


Underway at sea, circa 1978.
This photograph was received by the Naval Photographic Center in May 1978.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 124KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97689-KN (Color)

USS Ranger (CV-61)

Departing San Diego, California, in February 1987.
Photographed by PH3 Wimmer.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 101KB; 625 x 725 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 97690-KN (Color)

USS Ranger (CV-61)

Marines and Sailors of the carrier's crew man the rails as she leaves Honolulu, Hawaii, on 10 March 1989, en route to the western Pacific.
Photographed by PH3 Bos.
Tug at left is Niantic (YTB-781).

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 120KB; 740 x 565 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 84337

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Catapults four F8U "Crusader" jet fighters in quick succession from her bow and waist catapults, during operations in the eastern Pacific, circa 1958. An F4D "Skyray" fighter is partially visible in the foreground.
Ship at left is USS Thetis Bay (CVHA-1).

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 98KB; 740 x 595 pixels

 
Photo #: USN 1142206

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Mess cook cleans "coppers" in the carrier's galley, during operations in the South China Sea in August 1964.
Photographed by JOC R.D. Moeser.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 94KB; 590 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1142206.

 
Photo #: USN 1109915

Task Force 77


Operating in the South China, March 1965. It had recently launched strikes against North Vietnam.
Carriers present are (clockwise from bottom): Ranger (CVA-61), Yorktown (CVS-10), Coral Sea (CVA-43) and Hancock (CVA-19).
The guided missile cruiser Canberra (CAG-2) is in the center of the formation.
The destroyer screen includes: England (DLG-22), Gurke (DD-783), Rodgers (DD-876), Walker (DD-517), O'Bannon (DD-450), Somers (DD-947), Jenkins (DD-447), John A. Bole (DD-755), Higbee (DD-806), Buck (DD-761), Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) and Small (DD-838).
This photograph was specially posed, and does not represent a normal operating formation.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 166KB; 740 x 605 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1109915.

 
Photo #: USN 1110198

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Mark 117, 500-pound and 750-pound bombs lined up on the carrier's flight deck, awaiting loading on aircraft for strikes on North Vietnam.
Photographed in the South China Sea by JOC Robert S. Moeser and PH1 Jean C. Cote during February and March 1965.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 118KB; 585 x 765 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1110198.

 
Photo #: USN 1130916

USS Ranger (CVA-61)


Launches a bomb-laden A-7A "Corsair II" attack aircraft from one of her waist catapults, during operations in the Gulf of Tonkin in January 1968.
Photographed by PH1 Donald F. Grantham.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph.

Online Image: 114KB; 740 x 610 pixels

Reproductions of this image may also be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system as Photo # 428-N-1130916.

 
Photo #: NH 97691

USS Ranger (CV-61)


Crewmembers man the rails by the carrier's island, as she departs Naval Air Station, North Island, California, on 24 February 1989 to begin a western Pacific deployment.
Photographed by PH1 Michael D.P. Flynn.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 515 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 20 October 2001